Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 


T 


HLRBARIUiM  ORGANIZATION 


r,  Depan 


Chicagc 


^ 


Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

Museum  Technique  Series 
No.  I 


HERBARIUM  ORGANIZATION 


BY 

Charles  F.  Millspauc.h 
Late  Curator,  Department  of  Botany 


B.  E.  Dahlgren 
Acting  Curator,  Department  of  Botany 

KDITOK 


Chicago,  U.  S.  A. 

June,  1925 


HERBARIUM  ORGANIZATION 


BY   C.    F.    IflLLSPAUGH 


The  organization  and  maintenance  of  the  herbarium  of  the  Field 
Musetmi  of  Natural  History  has  been  imder  my  personal  supervision 
since  its  incipiency.  The  system  employed  in  this  herbarium,  which 
now  contains  over  a  half  million  sheets,  embraces  useful  practices 
not  common  in  other  herbaria  in  America  or  Europe.  It  has  been  built 
up  on  the  premise  that  each  specimen  should  tell  its  whole  story  for  all 
time  and  not  be  dependent  upon  the  memory  of  those  who  form  the 
staff  under  whose  necessarily  temporary  care  it  falls. 

Accessions 

Immediately  upon  the  receipt  of  a  collection  of  plants  in  the  her- 
bariimi,  the  recording  clerk  assigns  to  the  package,  or  to  each  package, 
the  next  consecutive  "accession  number"  and  fills  in  all  the  items 
of  which  he  has  information  at  the  time  on  an  accession  blank  (repre- 
sented in  a  condensed  form  in  fig.  i )  which  is  filed  in  the  department. 
For  the  archives  of  the  Museum,  for  filing  in  the  Recorder's  office 
together  with  the  correspondence,  receipts  and  other  matter  pertaining 
to  the  acquisition  of  each  accession,  an  accession  card,  such  as  shown 
in  fig.  2,  is  used  by  all  departments  of  the  Museimi.  The  recording 
clerk  then  attaches  to  the  packages  a  routine  ticket  (fig.  3)  and  stores 
the  packages  away  to  await  their  turn  in  mounting. 

The  motmting  preparator  selects  all  the  packages  of  a  given  acces- 
sion number  and  passes  the  specimens  through  the  poisoning,  laying- 
out,  gluing  and  strapping  processes.  At  the  conclusion  of  each  process 
he  enters  the  date  on  the  routine  ticket,  appending  his  initials  thereto, 
and  eventually  the  ticket  is  turned  over  to  the  recording  clerk  for 
entry  on  the  department  accession  blank.  Information  is  thus  always 
at  hand  to  check  the  work  done  by  each  preparator. 

When  the  plants  of  an  accession  are  mounted,  they  are  passed 
over  to  the  recording  clerk  who  arranges  the  sheets  in  the  order  of  the 
collector's  niunbers.  (Should  the  accession  be  a  mixed  one,  the  sheets 
are  first  arranged  according  to  collectors  and  localities  tmder  each 
collector.) 


4      Field  Museum  of  Natural  History — Technique,  No.  i. 


Anno.. 


Accession  No. 


Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 
DEPARTMENT  OF  BOTANY 


COLLECTION  FROM 


Acquired  by 

Received  by. 

Coll.  by 

Coll.  at 

Poisoned  by i. 

Laid  out  and  labeled  by... 

Mounted  by _... 

Entered  by. „ 

Catalogue  Nos. 

Accession  filed 

Stored 

Distributed  by 


Date. 


....  Date 

....  Date. 

....  Date 

._  Date 

.....Vol Page. 


.to.. 


Case. 

Date.. 

Herbarium  specimens 
Economic  " 

Dry  Fruits 
Fruits  in  Formalin 


Dupl.  for  Distribution 


Total  specimens  installed. 


Collector 

Locality 

Date 

Spec. 

Fig.  I,  Accession  Blank  (x  |)  front  and  back 


Hbrbarium  Organization — Millspauor. 


Accession  Card  D  No. 

Date IW. 


FMd  Museum  of  Natural  History 
CMci^w 


Mrr.  CXONAM«C.  PUMCMASK.  COLLATVD. 

mom  MwscuM  cxpcm-noN. 


Cr««tt* 
AMr«M  . 


Rac«lv«tf  frwai . 


By _ 

Collated  br  ... 

DateCollMto^. 
LtcaUty  __ 


D— crtpMen  ol  Ofcjtcto; 


Total  Nuaibcr  of  SpcclmeiM  CaUlot*4 

Cmtalmg  Nnmbcr*  

DapOcatM  lor  DisUlbitUoa  

N«(M 

Curator 

Pig.  a  (X  I) 


6     Field  Museum  of  Natural  History — Technique,  No.  i. 


ACCESSION 

LABEL 

DETERMINE 

DISTRIBUTE 

ARRANGE 

ENTER 

PERF. 

STAMP 

MOUNT 

STRAP 

POISON  LAY  OUT 


Fig.  3,  Routine  Ticket  (x  f ) 


Herbarium  Organization — Millspaugh.  7 

The  recording  clerk  then  enters  the  sheets  in  sequence  in  the  current 
Herbarium  Catalogue,  stamping  each  sheet  with  its  catalogue  number 
over  the  herbariimi  stamp.  (Every  herbarium  should  mark  its  sheets 
by  impressing  them  with  a  characteristic  ownership  stamp.) 

The  Catalogue 

The  catalogue  volimies  are  uniform,  first  class  "bookkeeper's 
ledgers,"  firmly  and  flexibly  bound.  They  are  "title-backed"  with 
consecutive  voltmie  numbers.  The  page  lines  are  consecutively 
ntmibered  beginning  with  i,  in  volume  i,  and  continuing  to  infinity. 
Each  volume  used  in  this  institution  contains  625  pages  of  40  lines 


n^tloJ^^  J^^LnxL^^ 

LOCAUTY-^                  j               DATES 

riR»T    CNTRV 
VOL.             P*0( 

LAST 
VOL. 

INTWV 

TOTAL 

SPCCIMCN* 

31 
51 

112 
477 

1 

2 

ISSI  ^67 

51 

4 

31 

AO 

477 

1<S<S 
47© 

lOd 

59 
5Q 

&02 

1 
5Z7 

1 

9 
281 

( 

1 

> 

A7 

55 

47 

4 

Fig.  4,  Specimen  Card  from  the  Iniex  of  Collectors 


each  and  therefore  accommodates  25, 000 specimens.  Every  plant  placed 
in  the  organized  herbarium  is  catalogued  even  if  it  is  the  only  one  ever 
received  from  a  given  collector. 

When  the  cataloguing  of  the  plants  of  an  accession  is  completed, 
the  recording  clerk  fills  the  remaining  blanks  on  the  accession  form, 
files  it  away,  and  turns  over  the  catalogued  plants  to  the  keeper-of- 
the-herbaritmi.  He  then  selects  from  the  "Index  of  Collectors"  the 
cards  of  the  collectors  comprised  in  the  accession  and  adds  to  each 
(fig.  4)  the  number  of  newly  catalogued  specimens,  changing  the  last 
page  record  after  adding  the  volume  and  page  of  the  last  previous 


8         Field  Museum  Natural  History — Technique,  No.  i. 


u^*auM9^,  ^c.tnft . 


f»T     IMIT  ft,  n*t  *»*.  H,  *— 


Id 


^.m'Jf^^Nmw.M^tv^jl^.^X..  1185 


feU^.S 


4ii 


9 


r 


s^71 
1 


specimen  Card  from  the  Geographic  Index 


Herbarium  Organization — Millspaugh.  9 

entry  in  the  catalogue.  Should  there  have  been  no  previous  accession 
from  a  collector,  a  new  card  is  added  to  the  index.  He  then  removes 
the  proper  cards  from  the  "Geographic  Index"  and  makes  the  appro- 
priate record  thereon  (fig.  5.) 

The  objects  achieved  by  this  method  of  cataloguing  are  many: 

(a)  The  date  of  receipt;  size  and  character  of  a  collection;  the 
person  or  herbaritmi  from  which  it  was  received,  etc.,  etc.,  are  now 
on  permanent  record. 

(b)  Should  a  collection  be  offered  for  sale  the  curator  can  immedi- 
ately inform  himself  as  to  whether  it  is  needed  in  the  herbarium  in 
his  charge  or  not. 

(c)  It  can  be  ascertained  in  a  moment,  how  complete  is  the  repre- 
sentation in  the  herbarium  of  any  collector's  plants,  from  any  locality. 

(d)  The  knowledge  may  at  once  be  gained  of  how  well  any  given 
geographic  region  is  represented. 

(e)  Idiosyncrasies  in  label  writing  and  abbreviations  that  are 
frequently  indecipherable  when  taken  alone  become  legible  in  the  light 
of  a  large  series  when  handled  together.  These  are  made  plain  dur- 
ing the  process  of  cataloguing,  and  are  permanently  translated  in 
the  records*. 

(f)  The  Index  of  Collectors  forms  a  source  of  biographical  data 
concerning  individual  activities. 

(g)  Botanists  engaged  upon  special  floras  find  the  greatest  aid 
in  referring  from  the  geographic  index  to  the  catalogue  entries  per- 
taining to  their  field  of  investigation.  Others  interested  in  plants  col- 
lected in  certain  regions  are  referred  to  all  the  species  in  the  herbaritmi 
from  the  region  of  their  interest. 

(h)  Consulting  botanists  will  never  need  to  depend  on  the  working 
staff  of  the  herbarium  for  information  concerning  any  particular  plant 
sheet.  Everything  known  concerning  each  sheet  or  plant  may  be 
learned  through  the  catalogue  nimiber  stamped  on  the  sheet. 

(i)  Should  a  plant  number  of  any  collector  be  referred  to  in  a 
publication  under  another  name  than  that  of  its  original  label,  the 
specimen  can  be  found  readily  from  its  catalogue  nimiber. 


•The  following  is  an  interesting  example  of  this.  A  package  of  plants  WM 
received  in  exchange  from  another  herbarium,  evidently  a  cast-off  from  their  exccM 
room.  It  contains!  a  series  of  plants  plainly  of  West  Indian  origin.  Most  of  the 
collecting  sheets  bore  simply  a  number.  Later  one  appeared  marked  "  B  38  " ;  another 
turned  up  "I.  P.  47";  on  still  another  was  "J.  B.  106";  and  finally  one  was  marked 
"Jos*  B.  105."  It  proved  to  be  the  "lost  collection  of  Don  Jos*  Blain,  made 
on  the  Isle  of  Pines  in  the  60s.,  that  had  been  discarded  on  account  of  lack  of 
label  information. 


lo      Field  Museum  of  Natural  History — Technique,  No.  i. 


510 


COLLECTED  BV  {£?• 


^3320 

1 
8 
8 

4 
0 

e 

■7 
8 
9 
£0333  0 
1 
S 
8 
4 
ft 
« 
7 
8 

e 

JO3340 
1 
8 
8 
4 
5 
6 
7 
8 
9 

SOb350 
I 
S 
8 
4 
6 
6 
7 


t%iJ«»tyi 


J  iluit»tiiffin(g»j^..».'w~yj^.^. 


x<ii»wii»; ^^y/3.^  nii^iilf  ,  Mt. 


g ^ 


•vr 


T.  « 
•r« 


•      P"<)r       **'  '    ' 

^lltfnAni'«- 

V  r     T 

'^^iiril'ifii 

^^^y^i'iMw' ■rn^fiifKiii;  ^^wi.^Au#. 

t^.limrf  i'ini«pjW«'aii  HO  -,  ^<lJLt  ■ 
I  ii^W.|il«iii»;,«i;».iit»il«  y  t^«». 


>^j.j^ 


i^ 


^4w4^M 


^^^li. 


■•lO 
I9IZ 
l»o» 

IS»* 

I8SS 
IS«« 
t«es 
■9IS 
I9i» 
■•Xo 


4e( 


.i&.K^.%.t^^. 


I»I5 


*«» 


I9a« 
I9a« 


.•>3u  a(.,,r<;..<&,,JUL. 


Department  Catalogue 


Herbarium  Organization — Millspaugh. 


II 


511 


II 


"^^ 


•2* 


-IL- 


i^^ 


€■-11    ■  ■     II     '  -A' 


^c.^y  Ai...>lirfaJ.^>.<au 

In^'il  i|ii'fcn7»i^  !■■■ 


lis- 


^»     ',t^ 


On  ■!».>.  ..•^ 


^?n»rii|t»iiV 


■■•• 


COLLaCTCD  tv 


t^;^. 


908960 


5OM70 


*r« 


soaaftc 


S0SS90 


Specimen  Pages  (x  about  J) 


12    Field  Museum  of  Natural  History — Technique,  No.  i. 

These  items  and  nvimerous  others,  constantly  occurring  as  the 
herbarium  grows  and  is  made  use  of,  prove  the  high  value  of  such  a 
cataloguing  system. 

In  case  the  name  of  a  species  proves  to  be  wrong  on  the  collector's 
label,  or  if  for  any  other  reason  it  is  changed,  the  correction  is  made 
near  the  label  and  the  sheet  handed  to  the  recording  clerk  who  writes 
the  new  designation  in  the  catalogue  in  pencil,  over  the  old,  and  returns 
the  sheet  to  its  new  cover  in  the  herbarium.  The  specific  position  of 
a  sheet  in  the  herbarium  is  not  allowed  to  be  changed  by  any  one  other 
than  the  recording  clerk  or  herbarium  keeper. 

When  a  large  private  herbariimi  of  mounted  specimens  is  acquired, 
it  is  first  broken  down  into  the  sheets  of  the  various  collectors  repre- 
sented therein  and  afterward  catalogued  and  re-distributed  into  the 
organized  herbarium  as  in  small  accessions.  In  this  manner  the  following 
herbaria  have  been  incorporated  in  that  of  the  Field  Musetun: 

Acquired        Sheets 

Bebb,  M.  S June    i,  1896    45,962 

Chicago,  Univ.,  of  ^ June  25,  1907     44,127 

Hall,  Elihu2 Feb.  26,  1916     21,763 

Heller,  A.  A Jan.     9,  1902     13,166 

Hitchcock,  A.  Ss Mar.  10,  1908       7,089 

Millspaugh,  C.  F Nov.  28,  1896       5,124 

Patterson,  Harry  W Aug.  17,  1900    37,935 

Rothrock,  J.  T J\ily  19,  1909    22,207 

Schott,  Arthur Mar.  22,  1897       8,494 

Schuette,  J.  H Dec.  22,  1911     10,992 

Small,  John  K July  12,  1904    20,534 

Wahlstedt,  L.  J Mar.    1,1907     17,556 

Every  sheet  of  these  herbaria  is  impressed  with  a  rubber  stamp,  of 
distinctive  shape,  indicating  the  herbarium  to  which  it  originally  per- 
tained. It  has  not  been  deemed  necessary  to  append  the  accession  num- 
ber to  the  sheets  as  the  catalogue  number  suffices. 

Herbarium  Cases 

The  most  modem  and  best  cases  are  constructed  of  steel.  These  are 
tightest  against  dust;  will  not  warp  and  cause  trouble  with  doors;  are 
at  least  in  part  fire-proof;  and  occupy  less  floor  space  in  the  herbarimn. 
The  t3^e  used  in  this  herbarium  are  so  constructed  as  to  leave  a  space 


^Deposited. 

*Not  yet  fully  organized. 

'His  Florida  herbarium. 


Herbarium  Organization — Millspaugh.  13 

of  an  inch  between  the  shelf  faces  and  the  door  and  a  like  space  between 
the  back  of  the  shelves  and  the  case'  back.  This  serves  the  purpose  of 
affording  ample  ventilation  and  allows  the  case  interior  to  be  more  read- 
ily cleaned  when  necessary. 

The  blocks  of  cases  are  arranged  in  wings  endwise  to  the  side  walls. 
The  pigeon  holes  are  spaced  5  inches  and  are  1 2  inches  wide  by  1 7  inches 
deep.  The  cases  are  14  pigeon  holes  high  and  have  two  tiers  to  the  door. 
There  are  two  half  doors  to  each  case  front.  The  cases  are  built  back- 
to-back  into  a  unit,  the  pigeon  holes  being  separated  from  each  other  at 
the  back  by  longitudinal  strips  of  steel,  one  inch  wide,  and  a  space  of 
an  inch  is  left  between  the  pigeon  hole  backs.  The  plans  were  drawn 
and  the  first  few  cases  built  when  poisoning  by  carbon  bisvilphide  was 
thought  to  be  efficient*;  hence  the  thorough  ventilation,  which  is  per- 
haps a  good  feature  still  as  the  cases  are  very  readily  cleaned  with  the 
vacuimi  brush. 

The  case  units  are  set  together  in  blocks  of  four.  Each  door  is  pro- 
\nded  with  a  metal  label-holder  to  csLrry  a  5  x  8-inch  card  upon  which 
is  a  printed  indication  of  the  contents  of  the  section  behind  the  door. 

SLIDES:  Each  pigeon  hole  is  converted  into  a  drawer  by  placing 
beneath  its  contents  a  straw-board  slide  upon  the  front  of  which  is 
hinged,  with  black  muslin,  a  one-inch  drop.  This  drop  is  of  great  util- 
ity: it  serves  as  a  "pull"  by  which  the  plants  are  brought  forward,  thus 
doing  away  with  the  old  method  of  grasping  the  covers  with  both  hands 
— a  destructive  process  injuring  the  plants  and  the  covers  as  well;  it 
also  serves  an  excellent  purpose  in  affording  a  place  to  which  subdivi- 
sional  labels  may  be  attached.  As  the  muslin  hinge  is  very  loose  the 
drop  in  no  way  interferes  with  the  withdrawal  of  the  contents  of  the 
pigeon  hole  next  beneath.  These  slides  are  manufactured  by  a  paper 
box  firm  and  cost  about  twenty  dollars  per  thousand. 

Herbarium  Arrangement 

The  families,  the  genera  and  the  species  are  arranged  alphabeti- 
cally in  this  herbarivmi.  The  alphabetic  arrangement  saves  everyone 
connected  with  the  herbarivun,  or  using  it,  much  valuable  time.  This 
disposition  of  genera  and  of  species  is  open  to  objection,  yet  in  a  large 
and  rapidly  growing  herbariimi  it  has  many  important  points  in  its 
favor — mostly,  in  saving  time.  It  does  away  with  cimibrous  index  cards 
to  genera  and  species  which,  if  kept  up  to  date,  require  changing  with 


•All  herbarium  specimens  are  now  poisoned  with  corrosive  sublimate  which 
affords  permanent  protection. 


14     Field  Museum  of  Natural  History — Technique,  No.   i. 

the  issue  of  each  new  monograph;  it  assists  materially  in  keeping  the 
species  in  their  proper  position  in  the  pigeon  holes;  it  saves  a  vast 
amount  of  time  in  the  insertion  of  new  material,  and  relieves  the  scien- 
tific staff  of  the  mechanical  duty  of  distributing  new  material. 

In  this  herbarium  the  species  under  all  genera  are  kept  in  individual 
"species  covers"  with  the  name  plainly  written,  or  hand-printed  in  ink 
at  the  lower  left  hand  margin  near  the  fold.  To  this  the  most  important 
synonym  is  added  when  necessary  for  cross-reference  in  the  genus.  The 
species  covers  are  of  "tough  check"  manila,  calendered  to  a  smooth  sur- 
face, and  are  of  several  contrasting  colors  to  distinguish  large  geographic 
divisions.  The  colors  used  are  as  follows:  North  America — buff;  Mex- 
ico and  Central  America — red;  West  Indies — olive;  South  America — 
salmon;  Europe — green;  Asia — purple;  Africa — blue;  Oceanica — 
yellow. 

Herbarium  Rules 

"When  consulting  specimens  in  this  herbarium,  pull  out  the  slide  of 
the  pigeon  hole  a  few  inches.  On  finding  the  species  cover  desired  push 
back  all  the  covers  above  it  before  withdrawing  it.  The  place  for  its 
return  is  then  plainly  indicated. 

Should  a  plant  be  found  to  be  wrongly  determined  please  write  your 
correction  neatly,  near  the  label,  and  append  your  name  or  initials.  Do 
not  return  the  sheet  to  the  herbarium,  leave  it  out  for  the  Recorder  to 
replace. 

Please  do  not  write  upon,  or  otherwise  deface,  the  original  label  of 
any  sheet.   Annoting  the  sheet  itself  is,  however,  invited." 

Loans 

Specimens  are  loaned  to  institutions  freely  but  only  to  individuals 
accredited  b}'-  institutions  which  will  guarantee  the  protection  of  the 
material  and  insure  its  prompt  return. 

When  a  request  for  a  loan  of  specimens  is  received  by  the  Director 
and  approved  by  him  on  the  recommendation  of  the  department, 
the  specimens  are  taken  from  the  herbarium  and  a  list  of  their  cata- 
logue numbers  is  made,  in  order  to  identify  missing  specimens  in  case 
of  error  at  the  time  they  are  returned.  The  list  is  attached  to  a  nvmi- 
bered  memo  (fig,  7),  which  also  bears  the  name  of  the  institution  or 
individual  to  whom  the  loan  is  issued,  the  date  of  forwarding  and  the 
nimiber  of  specimens  sent.  This  memo  is  kept  on  file  in  the  depart- 
ment. A  second  memo  (fig.  8),  bearing  the  same  ntmiber  and  corre- 
sponding data,  is  prepared  for  the  Recorder  of  the  Museum,  A  permit 
(fig.  9)  to  remove  the  specimens  from  the  Museum  is  then  issued  by 


Herbarium  Organization — Millspaugh. 


XS 


Year 


M«mo.  No. 

Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

DEPARTMENT  OF   BOTANY 


SPECIMENS   SENT  TO   OR    RECEIVED    FROM.' 


For  Pu  rpose  of „ 

Sent  by _....__i;;r;i:::„ „ Date.. 

Received  by „ Date.. 

Returned  by ..._ „ „ Date.. 

Stored  In „ _ _ 


MEMORANDUM   OF  SPECIMENS 


r 
I 


Fig.  7  (xi) 


i6     Field  Museum  of  Natural  History — Technique,  No.   i. 


MEMO.  No. 

Department 

Field  Museum  of  Natural  History 

From 

To  

Address 

FOR  CXAMINATION,  FOR  DETCRMINATION.  CXCHANGC 


From  Collection  of „ „.. 

Original  Accession  Niimbcr . 


Description  of  Objects: 


Date  received  .. 

Sijrnature.. 
Date  forwarded. . 

Signature. 


Accession  No Transportation  No. 


Remarks. 


Fig.  8  (X  i) 


Herbarium  Organization — Millspaugh. 


17 


I 


i 


< 

0^ 


< 

fa 

0 

9 


!2 


I 


^ 


■8 


a.    a 


I 
I 


I 


a 


Fig.  9  (X  J) 


i8     Field  Museum  op  Natural  History — Technique,  No.  i. 

the  Director,  after  which  they  may  be  dispatched.  When  the  loan  is 
returned,  the  record  on  these  memos  is  completed  by  checking  off  the 
numbers  on  the  department  memo,  and  entering  the  date  of  return  on 
both.  All  correspondence  relating  to  the  loan  is  attached  to  the  memo 
sent  to  the  office  of  the  Museum  Recorder. 

In  the  case  of  specimens  borrowed  by  the  department,  a  similar  pro- 
cedure is  followed.  A  letter  is  sent  to  the  Director  asking  him  to  re- 
quest the  loan.  As  soon  as  the  specimens  are  received,  two  memos  are 
made  out,  one  for  the  department  files,  and  one  for  the  Museum  Re- 
corder. Both  state  the  number  of  specimens  received,  their  source  and 
the  date  of  receipt.  When  study  upon  them  is  finished,  a  permit  for 
their  return  is  issued  by  the  Director,  and  the  memos  are  completed  by 
adding  the  date  of  return.  As  in  the  case  of  outgoing  loans,  all  corre- 
spondence pertaining  to  the  transaction  is  attached  to  the  memo  sent 
to  the  Recorder's  office. 


PRINTED  BY  FIELD  MnSEDM  PRESS 


